LETTER Editorial was laughable
Your Jan. 18 editorial on the state of democracy globally was laughable. The editorial summarized the findings of a recent report by Freedom House, a U.S. government-funded organization whose primary goal is to protect and support U.S. economic interests abroad, not promote democracy.
This is an organization run by neoconservatives, the people who supported the recent U.S. coups in Honduras and Ukraine, and the recent military invasions of Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen, all of which have gone very well, haven’t they?
In a massively brazen lie, Freedom House says that the influence of China and Russia are to blame for the ebbing of democracy worldwide. No, it is the United States that has regularly supported dictatorships globally. What Freedom House is worried about is the fact that more countries are becoming aligned with China and Russia and moving away from American influence.
Many countries now feel that China and Russia are more honest, neutral brokers in resolving conflicts they face, are much less likely to meddle in their internal affairs, and far less exploitative in their economic relations with them compared to the U.S.
The US has aggressively intervened in other countries to serve its interests for decades. Here’s a summary based on my research as a university professor: Since 1945, the end of World War II, the U.S. has overthrown foreign governments by coups in 63 of the world’s roughly 200 countries, has meddled in government operations by other means in 75, assassinated prominent leaders in 30, bombed 27, and militarily intervened in 28.
In case you are wondering, the U.S. never, ever intervenes because it wants to promote democracy, meaning the freedom to govern yourselves. It’s always about serving its own economic interests. The U.S. wants the freedom to plunder the resources of other countries and the freedom to extract profits from other countries for American investors. That’s what democracy means to the folk at Freedom House, the freedom to exploit others. If those countries make it difficult for the U.S. to do this, it intervenes. It’s got nothing to do with promoting real democracy.
Robert Hanham
Carmichaels